Eleanor+Dillon

On December 14, 1916, 19-year-old Eleanor Dillon, who worked as a clerk, died at Chicago's Columbus Hospital from septic peritonitis caused by a criminal abortion perpetrated by Dr. M.R. Perlstein that day. Eleanor had named Pearlstein as her abortionist in a deathbed statement.

Perlstein was arrested December 15, and Michael Schackman and Abraham Kruchersky were held as accessories. Perlstein was acquitted on May 18, 1918 for reasons I have been unable to determine.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more information about early 20th Century abortion mortality, see [|Abortion Deaths 1910-1919].

For more on pre-legalization abortion, see [|The Bad Old Days of Abortion]

Sources:
 *  Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database
 * death certificate
 * news snippet, //Chicago Day Book//, Dec.16, 1916
 * "Men Held For Girl's Death," //Chicago Tribune//, Dec. 16, 1916
 * "Doctor Held for Murder," //Chicago Tribune//, May 29, 1917

 



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